imagine a different world.

A week and a day ago, I went to the Solon High School football game with my dad. I took my camera, hoping to snap that day’s photo. I took a good amount photos, with there being at least one that could be become Friday’s photo. The game was a blow-out, and so dad and I called mom, who had dropped us off and done some errands, to come back and take us home.

That night, I was having some friends from college in from out of town. They were coming in late, so I went to lye down and watch tv. I decided to rest instead of look at tonight’s football pictures. The photos remained on the card, and in the camera. That was a mistake.

The next day, I hung out with my out of town guests, and my girlfriend. It was great for everyone to hang out together, see the city and do some shopping. Yes, even though I am a guy, I really don’t mind shopping! Ha. Anyways, after the shopping we came back to the house to celebrate the Jewish holiday of Sukkot, that was the “reason” my friends were in from out of town. After getting all situated, we went in the background to decorate the Sukkah with apples, corn husks, fake fruit, and newly designed paper plates.

I took out my camera to take pictures of my friends, and the sukkah. As I normally do on a new photo day, I erased all the old images. At that point, I had no idea what I did, and went on taking pictures. I took more photos that evening, and the next day when my friends and I took a walk to the ponds right down the street. There, we fed the ducks old popcorn and stale bread. The fish loved it, and then eventually the ducks did too.

My friends left in the early afternoon, and I went to shower and just crash. Later that night, I decided I would go through the photos from the weekend, and start choosing each A Photo A Day. I attached the camera to the computer and started importing. Upon completion, I noticed some photos missing. I looked on the camer, same thing. I had then realized what I had done, and started to cry and scream. Up until that point, I had no idea much this project meant to me.

That Saturday afternoon, when I erased the old photos on the camera, I erased all the football photos from Friday night, since I was lazy, and decided not to look at them that night. They were gone, and I had no photo for Friday’s A Photo A Day. I had worked on this project for 5 months, and it almost came crashing down in front of me. I searched the internet high and low for any program that would restore data off a camera card. There were a few, but none of them were truly free.

Sunday, and Monday, I tried out these programs, hoping, praying, that one of them would find just one photo from Friday night; didn’t matter if it was blurry, clear; interesting or boring. I just needed one photo from that night. Monday, since I was working late, and having no luck, I was forced to take a picture on the card I was trying to restore. I told myself I could only take one picture, as to not overwrite any old images, however, I took 2, of my sister’s room. The photos turned out slightly dark, but I still had a photo for Monday. That night, Monday, I stayed up past 1 a.m. trying to find just one program that would bring my old images back to life. It was taxing, and almost left me hopeless.

MediaRecover, the main program I tried and paid $30 for, recovered a ton of photos, old ones and new ones. However, the old ones were corrupt JPEGs. I couldn’t get any image editing program to open them. I started to believe, this project, A Photo A Day, was over. However, I started to search for programs that could un-corrupt corrupt JPEG files. In that search, I found the greatest program known to man, PhotoRescue.

This program gave me hope that one photo, from that Friday night would be found, as it was viewing photos that no other program saw. I used the program to save an image of the card, and then the next day, Tuesday, at work, I scanned it. PhotoRescue found approximately 4-6 images from that Friday night, all of the band. I was hoping for actual football photos, but at this point, beggars couldn’t be choosers. Later that night, after playing tennis with the mom and taking a photo for Tuesday, I spent another $30, and had my photo for Friday, September 28.

A Photo A Day had lived on. The project would not stop at 5 months, but would continue on, for at least a little while longer. I would be the judge of when A Photo A Day would end. The fact that I was so upset when I realized I had deleted photos from that Friday night, says a lot. The fact that I paid $60 for two programs to recover one image says a lot. This is my project, and I love doing it…I just hope everyone loves looking at the photos.

Speaking of photos, onto them. Below are all the photos, including the infamous Friday night image, as well as the bedroom image that had to be taken. A Photo A Day has returned, so look for more regular updates.

Friday, September 28 - The Football Shot